Not the planes at first, but the motorcycles I’ve always admired. Without even any friend who owns one, I could only watched them from a distance for a long time. Just watching from outside, in this manner, has a significant side effect, though: the big bike obsession. Big tires (especially rear), stylish fuel tanks, shiny (and usually noisy) exhaust manifolds; and most of all, big engines with preferrably high top speeds. While the fancy Goldwings, R1s, Monsters and Fazers are taking the stage; small cc beauties (which are also required in the beginning level) are usually overlooked.
I was, on the other hand, lucky to be waken up early from that obsession; by signing up a motorcycle riding course. I was taught there, how to take the baby steps before running, on the 125s. With barely 160 mph top speeds and a only a handful of HPs, most people in my case see these machines as mere toys. That “My case” was, however, not including the most essential part: riding. We weren’t, ofcourse, riding fast; but the two days of this experience was enough to taste the joy of riding. How those mere-125cc toys made me feel was, in a single word, wonderful! Hearing the sound of wind inside the helmet, feeling my body and the bike becoming a single, living machine; the meditative feel of focusing solely into the act of riding… If I’ve learned barely a single thing out of that course, that would definitely be that the thing is riding, not the HP or CC.
My motorcycle adventure, however, was not fortunate to go any further than that 2-day course. Actually, I still don’t even have a driving licence for cars, set aside bikes. Yet, look what happened: I’ve become a student pilot! Just like my pre-premature-motorcycle-experience state, this time I was engrossed by all those big jets and fighters; tending to overlook small, propeller-thrusted planes. And now, sitting here in my dorm room at a descent flight school, I’m again being reminded to look at the essence, not the tool. Flying, as far as I could feel in my currently-5-hr. “experience”, is always worth to live for, no matter what equipment is used.
Somebody above must be trying hard to teach me something...